S.E.Hinton's novel, `The Outsiders' absorbs the teenage reader by relaying valuable messages. As the characters of the Greasers and Socs, two rival gangs, unfold, the reader experiences a series of emotions, the most powerful one being that putting aside culture, wealth and circumstance, one society is not so very different from the next. It is an inherent part of human nature to form groups, factions or gangs, yet we all love, share, fear, fight and hope, but in various ways.

There is good and bad in all societies and within individuals as well. The Greasers, being the poorer of the two rival gangs endure victimisation and pressure from society as well as from the police because of their physical appearance. The boys from the `Greasers' have their "hair long and dress in blue jeans and T-shirts or leave our shirt tails out and wear leather jackets...